The Role Of Individualism In Ayn Rand's Anthem

It is very difficult to be able to advance in life if you are not allowed to think freely and become an individual. In the book Anthem, the author, Ayn Rand depicts her concept of mankind through a society where individualism is immoral. The main character, Equality 7-2521, struggles to remain a collectivist, he begins to question his society and defy their beliefs and rules. Equality 7-2521, successfully broke free from confinement when he came to the realization that "To be free, a man must be free of his brothers” (Pg 101). So, in order to become free and to be able to prosper in life you must work for yourself, toward individualism, not for the collective. In the beginning of Anthem Equality is just like everyone else, he is bound to
Equality discovers an underground tunnel and “Now [he sits] in the tunnel for three hours each night” (Pg 35). He conducts experiments to study in order to get a better understanding of the world, and how things work, as well as trying to discover new things. Equality continues to study and learn, even though he could get severely punished, unlike the others in his society, he wants to learn more than the information that is just given to him. He says that “in these two years [he has] learned more than [he] had learned in the ten years of the Home of the Students” (Pg 36). Equality was only able to make progress when he secluded himself from the rest of the community and discarded the rules that had held him back. Equality’s views in the middle of the book are changing from his views that he had in the beginning of the book. In the opening of the book he wrote that “It is a sin to think words no other think” (Pg 17), yet a few chapters in when he is studying and disobeying the rules of his society he says that “there is no shame in [him] and no regret. [He says] to [himself] that [he is] a wretch and a traitor. But [he feels] no burden upon [his] spirit and no fear” (Pg 37). As the book progresses the reader begins to see how Equality is slowly shaping into an individual who is no longer working for the
From the time he was a child he was taught that “everything which comes from the many is good. Everything which comes from one is evil” (Pg 85), but as he grows and learns and as he “walks through the forest, [he] is learning to doubt it” (Pg 86). Now, instead of reciting to himself that he must work for the collective he says to himself, “I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man's soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet” (Pg 96). He doesn’t want people to live for him and he doesn't want to live for others, he wants to live for himself and himself only. Equality also establishes a new goal for himself in the end which is to become happy as well as free and to pass along these thoughts to the following generations. Equality says that he will “break all the chains of the earth, and raze the cities of the enslaves, and [his] home will become the capital of a world where each man will be free to exist for his own sake”(Pg 104). Equality will fight for human rights and freedom of man until people do exists for their own sake. In conclusion, Equality no longer will work for the collective, he will no longer things he doesn’t want to do, he is now an individual and he will only do things with his free will, and he will make sure all men will one day have that same